A prolonged period of low oil and gas prices would depress investment in the industry and lead to a shortage in supplies, Qatar's Energy Minister Mohammad bin Saleh al-Sada said on Monday. "The decline in oil prices is threatening not just the economy of this continent but also risks discouraging investment in future," Sada said at an Asian energy conference in Doha, Reuters reported. "When we talk about oil and gas in the long term, many prolific oilfields in Asia are declining. Growth should be at a more moderate rate." The global oil benchmark, Brent Crude, stood at around $115 in June 2014, but prices went down to $70 per barrel range last September when overproduction from the United States caused prices to dip. Prices continued to sink to $40-50 in early 2015 after OPEC member-states, and in particular the world's biggest crude exporter Saudi Arabia, decided to keep production unchanged in November 2014. He added, "A prolonged period of low prices would impact investment in the region negatively—this is going to impact supply in future."
